For years, Terrence Jones has been passionate about pushing back darkness in Montgomery and beyond. That’s why he planted Strong Tower at Washington Park and has been instrumental in planting other churches, too.

But Terrence didn’t have much of an idea of how God was at work on the other side of the world, and ever since a recent trip to Central Asia, he sees things differently.

Scotty Goldman, director of the SBOM Office of Global Missions, said the idea for the trip came about at a retreat for Alabama Baptist missionaries serving overseas.

“We had an African American missionary who was there, and he asked me how many African American churches we mobilize through our office,” Scotty said.

The answer? Very few. So with funds from the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering, Scotty was able to provide some scholarships for a group of African American pastors to visit the missionary in his country of service and catch a vision for what he’s doing there.

For Terrence, it’s impacted the way he’s encouraging his church toward international missions. He’s also gotten together with other church leaders to create a fund to expose minorities to state, national and overseas missions.